The IPL 2026 auction will be held on December 16, before that all ten teams have released their respective retention lists. But the released players are more in the news than the retained players, because these released players will be auctioned on 16th December. In fact, all the teams together have released a total of 70 players, which include famous players like Glenn Maxwell, Andre Russell and Liam Livingstone. See here which team has released how many players. Chennai Super Kings have removed maximum 10 players and KKR have removed a total of 9 players, out of which Venkatesh Iyer is also one.

Chennai Super Kings (10 players)

Rahul Tripathi, Vansh Bedi, Andre Siddharth, Rachin Ravindra, Devon Conway, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, Sheikh Rashid, Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Mathisha Pathirana.

Kolkata Knight Riders (9 players)

Andre Russell, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Venkatesh Iyer, Quinton de Kock, Moeen Ali, Anrich Nortje, Lavnith Sisodia, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson

Sunrisers Hyderabad (7 players)

Adam Zampa, Rahul Chahar, Viaan Mulder, Abhinav Manohar, Atharva Tawde, Simarjeet Singh and Sachin Baby

Royal Challengers Bangalore (6 players)

Swastik Chikara, Mayank Agarwal, Liam Livingstone, Manoj Bhandage, Lungi Ngidi and Mohit Rathi

Punjab Kings (5 players)

Glenn Maxwell, Josh English, Aaron Hardie, Kuldeep Sen and Praveen Dubey

Mumbai Indians (8 players)

Satyanarayana Raju, Reece Topley, KL Srijit, Karn Sharma, Bevan Jacobs, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Lizaad Williams and Vignesh Puthur.

Gujarat Titans (5 players)

Mahipal Lomror, Karim Jannat, Dasun Shanaka, Gerald Coetzee, and Kulwant Khejroliya.

Rajasthan Royals (7 players)

Wanindu Hasaranga, Fazalhaq Farooqui, Akash Madhwal, Mahesh Teekshana, Kumar Karthikeya Singh, Ashok Sharma and Kunal Rathod.

Lucknow Super Giants (7 players)

Aryan Juyal, David Miller, Yuvraj Choudhary, Rajvardhan Hungergekar, Akash Deep, Ravi Bishnoi and Shamar Joseph.

Delhi Capitals (6 players)

Faf du Plessis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Sediqullah Atal, Manwant Kumar, Mohit Sharma and Darshan Nalkande.

Also read:

When and where will the IPL 2026 auction take place? Know A to Z details of mini auction including date and venue

There has been more discussion on Ravindra Jadeja leaving CSK than on his joining Rajasthan Royals. Actually, Rajasthan Royals have included Ravindra Jadeja and Sam Curran in their squad in exchange of trading Sanju Samson with CSK. It is also a matter of discussion as to how Jadeja agreed to leave CSK after 12 years. Did someone force Jadeja to leave the team or was Rajasthan giving him a huge offer? Now a media report has revealed that before the trade deal, MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja had openly talked to each other.

According to Cricbuzz, when the process of trade deal had not even started, Jadeja and Dhoni spoke openly to each other. Both of them agreed that it would be in everyone’s interest for Jadeja to move away from CSK.

According to the same report, with Noor Ahmed joining Chennai Super Kings, CSK management could have explored different options regarding Jadeja’s role in the team. Due to this, his place in the playing eleven was also in danger. Dhoni had openly talked to Jadeja in this regard, after which Jadeja also agreed that it would be right for him to leave the Chennai team.

It is also a shocking fact that Ravindra Jadeja was retained by CSK last year for Rs 18 crore, but Rajasthan Royals traded him for Rs 14 crore. While discussing this matter, former Indian cricketer Aakash Chopra said that he did not like Jadeja leaving a team like CSK and going to Rajasthan Royals for Rs 14 crore. Chopra said that Jadeja would have accepted the salary cut only if the Rajasthan team had offered him some other role.

Also read:

When will IPL 2026 auction take place? 237 crores will be showered on 77 players, A to Z details about the auction

Before IPL 2026, the retention list of all the teams has been revealed. All the teams have retained 15 or more players, but in the list of players to be released, there are some names which have shocked the entire IPL world. Among these, one name is also that of Andre Russell (Andre Russell Released), who has been released by KKR after 11 years. RCB and Delhi Capitals have shown the exit door to some famous players.

5 big players to be released

Andre Russell- The biggest name among the players to be released is Andre Russell, who was playing for KKR since 2014. With the release of Russell, Rs 12 crore has been added to KKR’s purse, because last season KKR had retained Russell for Rs 12 crore. Apart from scoring 2651 runs in 140 matches for KKR, Russell also took 123 wickets.

Liam Livingstone- Liam Livingstone was bought by RCB in the auction last year with a bid of Rs 8.75 crore. Last season, he could score only 112 runs in 10 matches for RCB and took only 2 wickets in bowling. Somehow this poor performance and the amount of Rs 8.75 crores became the reason for his release.

Faf du Plessis- Faf du Plessis was bought by Delhi Capitals in the mega auction for Rs 2 crore. In the 2025 season, he could score only 202 runs in 9 matches for Delhi. Du Plessis, who is 41 years old, is finding it difficult to find a buyer for the next season due to his increasing age. Even in the mega auction, Delhi had bought him at the base price only.

Glenn Maxwell- The last 2 IPL seasons have been very bad for Glenn Maxwell. He has scored only 100 runs in 17 matches played in the last two seasons. Whereas in IPL 2025, he could score only 48 runs in 7 matches for Punjab Kings. Maxwell’s release has added Rs 4.2 crore to Punjab’s purse.

David Miller- David Miller’s IPL form has also not been very good. In the mega auction, he was bought by Lucknow Super Giants with a bid of Rs 7.5 crore. But in the 11 matches played in the entire season, only 153 runs came from his bat.

Also read:

From MI-CSK to Delhi-Punjab, see the retention list of all teams in one click

All ten teams have released their retention list for IPL 2026. Chennai Super Kings have shown the exit door to 9 players and Rajasthan Royals to a total of 8 players. Mathisha Pathirana, Liam Livingstone, Andre Russell and Glenn Maxwell are some of the big names who have been released before the auction. Here you can see the retention list of all the teams at a glance.

Retention list of all teams for IPL 2026:

RCB’s retention list: Rajat Patidar (captain), Virat Kohli, Devdutt Padikkal, Phil Salt, Jitesh Sharma, Krunal Pandya, Swapnil Singh, Tim David, Romario Shepherd, Jacob Bethel, Josh Hazlewood, Yash Dayal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Nuwan Thushara, Rasikh Salaam, Abhinandan Singh and Suyyash Sharma.

Retention list of MI: Hardik Pandya (captain), Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Verma, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepak Chahar, Naman Dheer, Raj Angad Bawa, Ashwini Kumar, Robin Minz, Raghu Sharma, Ryan Rickleton, Corbin Bosch, Will Jacques, Trent Boult, Mitchell Santner, Allah Ghazanfar.

Retention List of LSG: Abdul Samad, Ayush Badoni, Aiden Markram, Matthew Bretzke, Himmat Singh, Rishabh Pant (captain), Nicholas Pooran, Mitchell Marsh, Shahbaz Ahmed, Arshin Kulkarni, Mayank Yadav, Avesh Khan, Mohsin Khan, Manimaran Siddharth, Digvesh Rathi, Prince Yadav, Akash Singh Do

CSK Retention List: MS Dhoni, Rituraj Gaikwad, Sanju Samson (trade), Shivam Dubey, Dewald Brewis, Ayush Mhatre, Urvil Patel, Shivam Dubey, Ramakrishna Ghosh, Jamie Overton, Noor Ahmed, Khalil Ahmed, Anshul Kamboj, Nathan Ellis, Shreyas Gopal, Mukesh Chaudhary, Gurjapaneet Singh.

SRH retention list: Pat Cummins (captain), Travis Head, Abhishek Sharma, Aniket Verma, R Smrana, Ishan Kishan, Heinrich Klaasen, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Harsh Dubey, Kamindu Mendis, Harshal Patel, Brydon Carse, Jaydev Unadkat, Ishan Malinga, Zeeshan Ansari.

Retention List of Gujarat: Shubman Gill (captain), Sai Sudarshan, Kumar Kushagra, Anuj Rawat, Jos Buttler, Nishant Sindhu, Washington Sundar, Arshad Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Rahul Tewatia, Kagiso Rabada, Mohammed Siraj, Prasidh Krishna, Ishant Sharma, Gurnoor Singh Brar, Rashid Khan, Manav Suthar, Sai Kishore and Jayant Yadav.

Retention List of Punjab: Prabhsimran Singh, Priyansh Arya, Shreyas Iyer, Shashank Singh, Nehal Wadhera, Marcus Stoinis, Azmatullah Omarzai, Marco Janssen, Harpreet Brar, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Musheer Khan, Pyala Avinash, Harnoor Pannu, Suryansh Shedge, Mitchell Owen, Xavier Bartlett, Lockie Ferguson, Vishak Vijaykumar, Yash Thakur, Vishnu Vinod

Retention List of Delhi: Axar Patel (captain), KL Rahul, Abhishek Porel, Tristan Stubbs, Karun Nair, Sameer Rizvi, Ashutosh Sharma, Vipraj Nigam, Madhav Tiwari, Tripura Vijay, Ajay Mandal, Kuldeep Yadav, Mitchell Starc, T Natarajan, Mukesh Kumar, Dushmantha Chameera.

KKR retention list: Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakraborty, Lavnith Sisodia, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ramandeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson

Retention List of Rajasthan: Ajinkya Rahane, Sunil Narine, Rinku Singh, Angkrish Raghuvanshi, Manish Pandey, Varun Chakraborty, Lavnith Sisodia, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ramandeep Singh, Ankul Roy, Rovman Powell, Harshit Rana, Vaibhav Arora, Chetan Sakariya, Spencer Johnson

The last date for releasing the retention list for IPL 2026 is 15th November. All teams will have to submit their retention lists by 5 pm tomorrow. Before that, there is news that Punjab Kings may release experienced Australian player Glenn Maxwell, while Sunrisers Hyderabad may once again show confidence in Heinrich Klaasen. Meanwhile, according to the report of Cricbuzz, Ajinkya Rahane can remain the captain of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2026.

Glenn Maxwell OUT, Klaasen IN

In the mega auction, Sunrisers Hyderabad had retained South African wicketkeeper batsman Heinrich Klaasen for Rs 23 crore. According to Cricbuzz report, there has been no indication of Klaasen being released. He will remain in SRH next season. Klaasen scored 487 runs in 14 matches for Hyderabad in IPL 2025.

On the other hand, Glenn Maxwell scored only 48 runs in 7 matches while playing for Punjab Kings last season. In the same report it was claimed that Maxwell’s release seems certain. Last season, Mitchell Owen was brought as a replacement for Maxwell, he also has little hope of getting retention from Punjab Kings.

There is also an update regarding Royal Challengers Bangalore that Liam Livingstone, Rasikh Dar Salaam and Mayank Agarwal can also be released. Mumbai Indians can release Will Jacques. This is the same Will Jacques, whom Akash Ambani reached to shake hands with the RCB team management after buying in the auction.

Who is the captain of KKR?

Kolkata Knight Riders was captained by Ajinkya Rahane last season. KKR team had tried to trade KL Rahul with Delhi Capitals, but that deal could not be completed due to some reason. If Rahul had come to KKR, he would probably have got the captaincy. For now Rahane can remain the captain.

Also read:

Possible list of players to be released before IPL 2026, many big players left from MI-CSK!